Research Summaries

Back Design, Development and Assessment of a Tethered Long-Endurance UAV for Homeland Security Applications

Fiscal Year 2015
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Investigator(s) Dobrokhodov, Vladimir N.
Jones, Kevin D.
Sponsor Unconventional Concepts, Inc. (Other)
Summary The single biggest constraint to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) usage is endurance. This effort will examine the tradeoff between free-flight maneuverability and endurance. By tethering a camera equipped vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV to the ground to provide power, the UAV can hover for unlimited periods of time in low to moderately windy conditions at a fixed point and relay video data. These "high view" videos taken from up to 100 feet above the ground provide valuable visual data for a large area around the tether site. While the tethered UAV can hover indefinitely, it would have very limited ability to maneuver. The tradeoff produces a system designed to do station keeping at altitude only, but for an unlimited period of time.
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Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal